Kooka cranks = crap!

[suburbanreuben]

It's a common problem with Kookas (and Cooks, Graftons and early Race Face), stick with Shimano and you'll generally be okay, although the old Deore DX cranks were a little soft.

Strangely I did have a bike in my stand one day, an old beater, that was wearing a hugely corroded set of Kookas, the pedals were seized in and the cranks looked like they had been at the bottom of a lake for years, but I checked them over carefully - no cracks!

are there any good RF Turbine cranks? The later compact ones? Or even Isis? Cause I always thought Turbines were the ones to buy if you want cool cranks with a little more reliability...

The Turbines were very durable. Have only seen 1 that broke and it was by a trials riding friend. Maybe the early IB cranks had some issues?

I managed to break an early Turbine LP,, non drive side crank, possibly from overtightening the bolts... :roll: after a couple of years use. True to their word the cranks were replaced under warranty with the new improved version.
RF were quality then....

 

[firedfromthecircus]

stick with Shimano and you'll generally be okay,

Tell that to a mate that had to pull the broken end of an STX crank out of his calf :shock:
And this was when it was new in '97! :cry:

 

[shogun]

stick with Shimano and you'll generally be okay,

Tell that to a mate that had to pull the broken end of an STX crank out of his calf :shock:
And this was when it was new in '97! :cry:

I know some mid 90s 'cheap' shimano had issues cracking around the spider arms (Altus, Alivio, STX/STX-SE/STX-RC as I recall), but thats nasty! Mind you I did the same to a set of FSAs (the ones with the wide arms? I forget now. I remember the replacements came with a 170 sticker covering the 175 stamp, I remember that!).

I bent/broke a heap of cranks in a two year period then snapped up some cheap M900s on the runout as M950 was coming. I used them on my race bikes for the next few years, they were brilliant. Broken UN95 bb axle totaled them unfortunately by tearing a piece of taper out as it separated.



Race Face were certainly one exception to the rubbish CNC cranks about. That said, turbines didn't break easily but they did certainly bend, and the spider arms were a bit weedy.


I shouldn't be too harsh really, in hindsight, everything broke, and cranks were one of the more consumable items for me.

 

[OldNBroken]

in hindsight, everything broke,

If I had a dollar for every Look road pedal I've broken... damn spindles never last.

I'm thinking of hiring myself out for quality control. If I can't break it, it's got to be good.

 

[halaburt]

I have to agree that a lot of the CNC stuff was certainly not better then the standard stuff, if you then take into account the price difference....

I'd go further and suggest that many/most of the CNC'ed cranks are inferior in strength and durability to at least the high-end, cold-forged Shimanos and Suginos (who also made the Suntour, Specialized and Ritchey cranks in the 80's and early 90's). The CNC makers were mostly chasing low weight numbers and/or those customers hypnotized by the blingy anodized colors.

All that said, I will confess to having several "rider" bikes with Cook Bros. (the beefier CBR's only though) and even one with the crack-tastic Morati's -- all ridden by my fat ass since the early 90's without problem. Knock on wood.

 

[mechagouki]

Early RF Turbines were machined from billet - never a good idea as evinced by the breakages of so many Ringle, Grafton, Onza, etc, etc bits. Later Turbines were forged then machined - much stronger, and RF were often (but not always) good enough to let you know by adding the word 'forged' to the crank arm decals.

There have been faulty runs of (usually lower end) Shimano cranks, there are standing recalls on the inherently weak ones - those spindly Alivio/Altus ones spring to mind. Any part can be broken though, and with generally reliable parts it's usually the result of misuse. In 23 years of mountain biking I've never broken a major component, a few broken spokes and one broken chain would be it - I weigh 175lbs so I'm not super light - it has a lot to do with how you ride.

 

[Drencrom]

Any part can be broken though, and with generally reliable parts it's usually the result of misuse. In 23 years of mountain biking I've never broken a major component, a few broken spokes and one broken chain would be it - I weigh 175lbs so I'm not super light - it has a lot to do with how you ride.

Strong words. I didn't misuse my Race Face cranks, or the XT bottom bracket that split along the axle - the warranty replacements would be a clue to that. Things break, some due to design and manufacturing flaws, and some due to fatigue life.

If you bought a GT Zaskar back in '93/94, would you not be led into believing that your bike was capable of withstanding some aggressive riding? Anything less than that would be false advertising, or was Hans Rey a bit soft on his bikes in reality?* Truth is that an RS Mag 21 was weak, and is still weak - I went through a couple of snapped fork braces in one year alone. We might all have different riding styles, granted, but I don't think you can call the majoirty of failures misuse, unless you want to sound like the customer service operator at Kooka, who no doubt got used to saying it must have been trashed by an elephant hucking off of a cliff.



*He wasn't, nice bloke though on the couple of occasions I met him.

 

[mechagouki]

Well, I will admit that I've restricted my 'hucking' activities to BMX and full-sus bikes, as gm1230126 once sagely pointed out, bikes last a long times if you treat them as bikes, not aircraft, "misuse" is a gray area further muddied by peoples expectations and motivations for buying, as people why they bought Kooka cranks and a lot will tell you it was because "they came in bitching rasta ano" or some similar reason not based in practicality.

I will admit to being surprised by the split XT axle, though I'm not surprised it was swiftly warrantied, Shimano excel in that department.

The bicycle industry does suffer from frivolous warranty claims from people whose expectations have exceeded their ability - at least one bike shop I know stopped selling dirt-jump bikes for that very reason.
Kona have a very good explanation of their warranty limitations, one that is well considered and fair, especially coming from a company that have been latterly associated with 'extreme' riding.

 

[Drencrom]

I will admit to being surprised by the split XT axle, though I'm not surprised it was swiftly warrantied, Shimano excel in that department.

Not as surprised as I was, it was in the middle of an all day epic. Not my fondest 15 mile trek to the car!

But Shimano were indeed quibble free, and I got a better BB, so I was happy.

 

[mechagouki]

Not as surprised as I was, it was in the middle of an all day epic. Not my fondest 15 mile trek to the car!

I went through a paranoid phase in the early days of cartridge BBs where I would carry a spare BB, the tool and an adjustable wrench on all-day rides, (first couple of years they appeared, the bearings in those things just seemed to self destruct without any warning) a good couple of pounds of extra weight, pre-cellphone days of course. I also had a quill stem loosen up on me whilst many miles from home, an impromptu trip into the woods with no tools at all, I could ride in a straight line, but that was it, that was a long frustrating walk.